Blessed Nazju Falzon

Nazju Falzon (1 July 1813 – 1 July 1865) was a Maltese cleric and a professed member from the Secular Franciscan Order. He did not become an ordained priest because he did not feel he was adequate enough for such an honor. He became an apt catechist and noted for his commitment to religious instruction. Falzon's beatification took place in mid-2001 in Malta when Pope John Paul II visited the island nation. Nazju Falzon was born in Malta in a big house on Strait Street on 1 July 1813 to Francis Joseph Falzon (a judge) and Maria Teresa Debono (the daughter of the judge Calcedonio Debono). Falzon was baptized on 2 July in the church of Porto Salvo in the names of "Rocco Angelo Sebastiano Vincenzo Naju Rosario Falzon". He had three brothers; all four became lawyers and two of the brothers entered the priesthood. His brother Anthony became a lawyer and married while his two brothers Kalcidon and Francis became priests. He obtained a doctorate in law on 7 September 1833. He received the tonsure and his clerical habit on 20 December 1828 and on 21 December 1828 was instituted as a cleric in a Mass that Mgr. Publius M. Sant presided over. Falzon received the minor orders on both 21 August 1831 and on 18 December 1831 but did not wish to be ordained as a priest on the basis of unworthiness despite the local bishop's encouragement. He taught also catechism to local children first at the Institute of the Good Shepherd and became quite fluent in English due to the fact that the British were present across the island nation. Falzon also worked with the British soldiers and sailors who were stationed on Malta which at the time was a British protectorate; he would seek out the men at their assigned positions. Those who were interested were brought to his own home for services. More grew interested in this and it forced him to move and he soon found a new home for his work at a Jesuit church in the capital of Valletta.